18th Blog Banter

Once again it is time for a blog banter. As is my wont, sometimes I participate, sometimes not. Depends on the question.

Welcome to the eighteenth installment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by none other than me, CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed to crazykinux@gmail.com. Check out other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

On May 6th 2010, EVE Online celebrated its 7th Anniversary. Quite a milestone in MMO history, especially considering that it is one of the few virtual worlds out there to see its population continually grow year after year. For some of you who've been here since the very beginning, EVE has evolved quite a lot since its creation. With the expansion rolling out roughly twice a year, New Eden gets renewed and improved regularly. But, how about you the player? How has you gaming style evolved through the years or months since you've started playing? Have you always been a carebear, or roleplayer? Have you only focused on PvP or have you given other aspects of the game a chance - say manufacturing. Let's hear your story!

Well yes my play style has considerably evolved. From those tentative premature steps into low sec before I was ready (in a hauler - don't ask), to the current wormhole existence (Lokies included), my play style has considerably evolved. All players are guaranteed this. The reason is simple. Your options are rather limited in the beginning when you are restricted to frigates. Things grow from there. The thing to remember, is that once you max out your skills on a particular vessel, it makes you no more nor no less capable in other vessels. But over the years, as skills pile up skill plan by skill plan you unlock more and more capabilities. These never go away. So you always keep your old capabilities as you add layers on layers.

There is also the attitude shift as you progress through the game. From the indignation of getting your ore stolen for the first time to "what is that miner doing not paying attention to the space around him? *squish*". First you must make "peace" with the concept of "write off the ship before you un-dock". Then you must get your mind around the "small corp/alliances can't get involved in big things" and there's nothing wrong with joining a large organization. Also a corp of just newbies is fine in something like a theme park MMO, but not necessarily optimal for EVE. Then there is "Politics count".

Finally there is more combat oriented aspects of the game where you must learn about tracking, tackling, shield vs armor tank, etc, etc, etc. In places EVE is a deep and subtle game. Knowing when to switch from Barrage M to Nuclear M is an acquired skill (which incidentally takes planning to use since you have to be smart enough to make sure your ship has supplies of both to pull it off). Your acquisition of skills, your growing knowledge of the game mechanics, your connections within and without the game. They all feed on each other to change your experience as you go along. How you handle the first big burnout, how you play after that etc etc etc...

One thing that helps enormously is that EVE continues to evolve. I can distinctly remember making the comment a few years ago that "until they let us build towers and stuff like that, they aren't serous about this player run market thing". I'm currently making the items required to manufacture towers. Incarna (whenever gets here) is poised to change things again. The balance between the ships is better than it's been in years. Still some adjustments to make but things are coming along. I look forward to the Rocket fix. I look forward to the assault frigates getting their 4th bonus. Formations, T3 frigates and modules, lag fixes. As each of these additions to the game happens they will continue to change the way we play, newbies and veterans alike.

At some point this fall, I will have reached the milestone where I've played the game for exactly half the amount of time it's been live. Not to mention 50mil skill points at some point soon (I'm at 47.8 atm). In all that time, the game has changed and how I've played it has changed. It keeps it from being stale. It will be interesting how DUST 514 integrates.